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Wingfield, Chris 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8127-6548
(2010)
A case re-opened: the science and folklore of a ‘Witch’s Ladder’.
Journal of Material Culture, 15 (3).
pp. 302-322.
ISSN 1359-1835
Abstract
This article retraces the process by which a feathered rope, discovered in the roof of a house in Somerset, came to be displayed as a ‘Witch’s Ladder’ in a glass case showing ‘Magic and Witchcraft’ at the Pitt Rivers Museum. This ‘retracing’ has revealed a set of alternative associations that the feathered rope has had: with other museum objects and written documents, as well as with a range of people. Although presented in the museum as a ‘matter of fact’, its original function is revealed to have been a ‘matter of concern’, enabling this ‘object’ to emerge from its glass case as a ‘thing’ (Latour). Retracing its network and the historical process by which it became a museum object has meant engaging with the scientific ambitions of E.B.Tylor and his notions of independent corroborating evidence, as well as with the more ‘folkloric’ practices of literary folklore.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Centres > Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 05 May 2020 00:06 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Oct 2022 06:06 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/74967 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/1359183510373982 |
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